The present invention relates to a method of producing ceramic greenware, in particular ceramic green films.
It is known that film castings may be used in the production of ceramic film substrates from ZrO2. To do so, first a ceramic ZrO2 powder is prepared together with organic components such as a binder, a plasticizer and a solvent to form a castable suspension. This suspension is then cast in the form of a film in a narrow viscosity range to guarantee a uniform thickness and quality of the substrate. Such a method is known from European Published Patent Application No. 0 441 219, for example.
For drying, i.e., removing solvent from the ceramic green film, the cast green film is then passed through a long drying channel which is equipped with a closed exhaust air system and is protected from the risk of explosion, and finally the green film is sent to individual printing steps to produce a sensor, for example. The green film is dried after casting essentially for the purpose of minimizing shrinkage in the subsequent process steps and removing at least some of the solvent.
In addition, with known green films, additional drying of the previously printed green film is usually necessary after each printing step to produce a sensor. In practice, however, it has been found that undesirable but unavoidable post-shrinkage of green films during such an intermediate drying depends greatly on the selected drying conditions.
Unwanted post-shrinkage is due essentially to residues of solvents or other organic components which remain in the green film and are at least partially volatile or undergo partial decomposition at temperatures above approx. 60xc2x0 C.
Thus, known ceramic green films can no longer be recycled directly after drying without additional complicated processing steps because some of the organic plasticizer has been expelled in drying, for example.
The method according to the present invention for producing ceramic green films has the advantage in comparison with the related art that no solvents are used.
Thus, greenware or green films produced according to the present invention have little or no post-shrinkage, for example, which is very advantageous, in particular in the case of drying steps between individual printing steps, so the post-shrinkage problems encountered with cast greenware in the related art are overcome. The production process of ceramic green films is thus greatly improved with regard to consistent quality.
In addition, ceramic greenware or green films produced according to the present invention are not subject after extrusion, for example, to any shrinkage or deformation forces, which are unavoidable in drying castable suspensions. Therefore, their longitudinal and lateral dimensional stability is always guaranteed.
In addition, the surface structure of ceramic greenware or green films produced by the method according to the present intention is determined essentially by the shape of the extruder nozzle. Typical drying defects such as bubbles or development of a skin, which occur with cast films, do not occur here.
Due to the fact that no solvents are used in the method according to the present invention, it is also possible to eliminate a time-consuming and energy-intensive drying step after casting the green film or greenware known in the related art in a very advantageous manner. At the same time, this also makes it possible to eliminate expensive explosion-protected installation parts and facilities for recovery of solvents. This yields considerable advantages with regard to the cost of the production installations for the films and their complexity.
Finally, the ceramic green film according to the present invention is sufficiently flexible for the printing process in an advantageous manner.
It is very advantageous to add a dispersant to the ceramic greenware or green films during the production process, so that the highly viscous starting material will always remain fully recyclable without any additional processing steps. Thus, since the composition always remains unchanged during and/or after production of the ceramic greenware, residues, in particular film residues obtained after a kneading or extrusion process, can be added back to the highly viscous starting material (after suitably pulverizing) and processed together with it in a very advantageous manner. This saves on raw materials while preventing waste.
It is also advantageous if the extruder is heated so that the viscosity of the highly viscous starting material is reduced in the shaping of the ceramic green film and can be adjusted in a controlled manner. It is very advantageous that the highly viscous starting material used here behaves like a thermoplastic.
It is also advantageous if the ceramic greenware is picked up by a suitable delivery device after leaving the extruder and is cooled in the process. The ceramic green film produced can thus, for example, be sent immediately to further processing steps, e.g., a printing process in sensor production.
To monitor the thickness of the green film thus produced, it is also advantageous if the calender used is provided with an integrated device for measuring the thickness of the green film, which device is connected to the extruder by a control device in an especially advantageous manner and thus always guarantees a largely constant preset film thickness.